Sweeter Easter: Lemon curd Easter egg cookies 

An Easter take on the jammy dodger – great to make with kids over the break. The curd recipe makes more than you’ll need but it’s also delicious on toast or dolloped into a bowl of granola and yogurt.

MAKES about 10

LEMON CURD

2 lemons, zest and juice

150g caster sugar

3 large eggs

100g unsalted butter, diced

VANILLA BISCUITS 

150g plain flour

¼ tsp fine sea salt

100g caster sugar

100g unsalted butter, diced and chilled

2 large egg yolks

½ tsp vanilla bean paste

icing sugar, to dust

• For the curd, put the zest and sugar in a heatproof bowl and, using your fingertips, rub together until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. This helps release the oils from the zest. Add the eggs and lemon juice then whisk gently to combine. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water, stirring constantly with the whisk, until the curd thickens so that it coats the back of a spoon. Remove the bowl from the heat then stir in the butter until melted and completely combined. Pour into sterilised jars and refrigerate until needed.
• For the biscuits, put the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl of a food processor then pulse to mix together. Add the butter then pulse again until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and vanilla and pulse a final time just until the mixture starts to clump together. Tip out on to the worksurface and use your hands to form into a uniform dough. Press into a flat disc and wrap in clingfilm to chill for at least an hour before rolling out.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out until 3mm-4mm thick. Use 8cm egg-shaped cookie cutters to cut out as many biscuits as possible. Transfer the biscuits to parchment-lined baking trays. Use a small round cookie cutter to remove a small hole in half of the cookies. Gather all the scraps and use to form more biscuits. Chill the formed biscuits in the fridge for 20 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
• Bake the biscuits for about 15 minutes or until golden at the edges. Remove from the oven then leave to cool.
• Spoon a small teaspoonful of the curd (you will have more than you need) on to the whole biscuits, then top with the biscuits with the holes cut out. Dust with a little icing sugar.
• These are best served within just a couple hours of being assembled as the curd will soften the biscuits over time.